I think you've put your finger on something that points to deeper issues we're facing as a country. Outrage is not just fatiguing, given the choice, many of us prefer to be in a more balanced state of mind and heart. To do our daily lives, which can also have a lot stress and things to be outraged about... And, I want to acknowledge that this is a privilege to be able to choose what to be outraged about and what to avoid being outraged about. When it comes to Trump's threats, there are tens of millions of people who don't get to choose because Trump and his cult followers are coming for them. This is where the media - journalists who put on their shoes one at a time - are doing a huge disservice to our country. They need to be awake and report about the impact of the words being said, the policies being proclaimed, on people. Maybe due to their own personal issues around authority they are unable to report on that. Or maybe it's that so many of the media outlets are now beholden to shareholder profits and they toe the line... The horse race is easy. I hope we can create a passionate movement for democracy, with marches like in Germany, to show how much energy there is for something, with a channeled outrage to fuel our work against Trump and Trumpism. Thanks for delving into these topics, Mark. I read you everyday on Twitter.
It appears to me much of the media is caught up in the “pomp” they either forget or ignore the circumstances. They are being played by politicians and their consultants. I fully anticipate Trump will continue grand standing in the courtroom knowing full well that will gain more attention than if he were to follow the judicial demeanor. Many local broadcasters spoke out in editorials until large corporations gained control of so any stations. They dictate coverage and influence unicorns opinions.
I noted that you are a DEI educator. Could you give me the sources for what DEI actually IS and what it tries to accomplish? The media seems to suggest that it is a form of affirmative action. And its detractors are vile, vile, vile:
HI Susan, the internet is filled with excellent sources and each will define DEI in their own way, depending on the scope of their interest and work, and the goals they want to achieve. I agree, they are mixing affirmative action with DEI which is much bigger and holistic, with different goals and strategies. Off the top of my head - Kenji Yoshino and David Glasgow at the Meltzer Center, NYU https://www.law.nyu.edu/centers/belonging are doing some great work, especially in this time of legal attacks. I recommend a class with VISIONS. https://visions-inc.org/ They're not a large organization nor well known, and they do wonderful work. I will mention my small contribution - www.SunShowerLearning.com - where I focus on creating online courses with experts like Dr. Derald Wing Sue who is a leading researcher into microaggressions. Well, if you find a good source for what you're looking for, please share.
I am thoroughly exhausted and disgusted with the fourth estate for failing to live up to its original purpose. Not only is it failing us now but it took its eyes off the ball allowing oligarchs and Christian Nationalists free rein to align and conspire in secret for decades. We shouldn't be surprised when all the major newspapers and cable companies are now owned by toxic billionaires. I recently had to back off twitter and went an entire month without so much as a click so I could be around Republican family members during the holidays. I didn't want to be freshly reminded how behind that smile and veneer of good cheer, how truly awful they are. I'm not out for the fight, but I am taking stock of how I can be most useful this year to get out the vote, while not risking my job. I didn't have that concern when I worked for an organization in 2020 to register voters and knock on doors to get Warnock and Ossoff elected. As for DeSantis's covid comment, I read a response to your tweet about that on twitter. This woman replied that a vaccine is no longer required to avoid getting covid and that people are rarely if ever dying anymore. Even if that were true, Republicans aren't just attacking covid vaccines but all vaccines because they're basically all libertarians now.
I don’t think the problem is outrage fatigue as much as the stress of pretending not to notice what’s happening. The NYT writes one story about open fascism and thinks they’re done, while they essentially led with the president of Harvard for about three weeks. Our biggest media outlets never let the fact that Republicans lie constantly influence their judgment on whether Republicans might be lying to them again.
In my last newsroom job, I was the one who got fatigued, because I was constantly imploring my bosses to act as if the thing they knew was happening (and would agree with me on after work) was in fact happening. THAT was exhausting. Their approach--repeat what Republicans say, maybe repeat what the Democrats are saying in response, put in the occasional “without evidence,” call it a day--it didn’t seem to be wearing on them at all.
As I've said elsewhere, any victory of trump in a primary--which will be all of them--should be met with the headline "trump wins X primary despite overt desire to be dictator." Followed by subhead: "The real issue is why people want that. "
And ask the damn question in the exit polls and report on THAT.
“[Dean] listed states he would win to a raucous audience before screaming "Yeah!" Within four days, it was broadcast 633 times on national news networks and cable channels.”
Imagine if Trump calling people “vermin” was broadcast half that much.
There is something about the psychology of religious cults (or perhaps the psychology and sociology behind the rise of Nazism in the 1930s in the US and Europe) that might help explain the present moment we are in. We have all seen how otherwise reasonable, smart people will believe that some guy who has little more than boundless audacity is the second coming of Christ or is otherwise worthy of our suspending common sense and healthy skepticism to bellieve whatever comes out of his mouth. Once a person is bought into a messiah figure, it is extraordinarily hard for facts and reason to dislodge that person from their belief. If anything, the conduits of facts and reason become an enemy to be resisted. Sometimes the only thing that shakes a person or group of people from their hold on cultism is some deep and persistent dissonance between their belief system and their lived reality. It is absolutely true that the media must prioritize being consistently diligent in chronicling the threats to democracy and our way of life being promulgated by Donald Trump and his followers. But breaking the hold of the cult will take so much more. The proof is the fact that, like "long COVID," a significant segment of America never fully got over its 1930s adoration of Nazism but its symptoms persist in the Donald Trump/MAGA movement.
There is so much of the lies and disinformation that is built on skewed science -- especially the eugenics notion that there are distinct races with distinct genes that make some "better" than others. It's the basis of White Supremacism and echoes much of the Dominionist notion that the white man's religion was what the founders used to write the Constitution.
When the end goal of a “news” outlet is profit and and the owner/corporation is opposed to anything that stands in the way of profit and/or it’s messaging then it must follow that the vehicle becomes a non independent corporate tool to promote said corporate messaging...Fox News is obvious but MSNBC, CNN, NYT, WaPo are all disposing of investigative and truthful journalism and replacing it with opinionism and the opinions are those of management. Nobody wants to lose their job so they all go along with it.
I think you've put your finger on something that points to deeper issues we're facing as a country. Outrage is not just fatiguing, given the choice, many of us prefer to be in a more balanced state of mind and heart. To do our daily lives, which can also have a lot stress and things to be outraged about... And, I want to acknowledge that this is a privilege to be able to choose what to be outraged about and what to avoid being outraged about. When it comes to Trump's threats, there are tens of millions of people who don't get to choose because Trump and his cult followers are coming for them. This is where the media - journalists who put on their shoes one at a time - are doing a huge disservice to our country. They need to be awake and report about the impact of the words being said, the policies being proclaimed, on people. Maybe due to their own personal issues around authority they are unable to report on that. Or maybe it's that so many of the media outlets are now beholden to shareholder profits and they toe the line... The horse race is easy. I hope we can create a passionate movement for democracy, with marches like in Germany, to show how much energy there is for something, with a channeled outrage to fuel our work against Trump and Trumpism. Thanks for delving into these topics, Mark. I read you everyday on Twitter.
Thanks, Joel.
It appears to me much of the media is caught up in the “pomp” they either forget or ignore the circumstances. They are being played by politicians and their consultants. I fully anticipate Trump will continue grand standing in the courtroom knowing full well that will gain more attention than if he were to follow the judicial demeanor. Many local broadcasters spoke out in editorials until large corporations gained control of so any stations. They dictate coverage and influence unicorns opinions.
Darn autocorrect. I don’t think Unicorns opinions. Should be “unconscious opinions “
I noted that you are a DEI educator. Could you give me the sources for what DEI actually IS and what it tries to accomplish? The media seems to suggest that it is a form of affirmative action. And its detractors are vile, vile, vile:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/01/20/us/dei-woke-claremont-institute.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Pk0.TP7n.0TKVNK6yWVDd&smid=fb-share&fbclid=IwAR3b5tuTKdk-gACgRdvG6QhDFj0YA1mZ9xKj1VhTKWMftJDH2zpFFY2_ciU
HI Susan, the internet is filled with excellent sources and each will define DEI in their own way, depending on the scope of their interest and work, and the goals they want to achieve. I agree, they are mixing affirmative action with DEI which is much bigger and holistic, with different goals and strategies. Off the top of my head - Kenji Yoshino and David Glasgow at the Meltzer Center, NYU https://www.law.nyu.edu/centers/belonging are doing some great work, especially in this time of legal attacks. I recommend a class with VISIONS. https://visions-inc.org/ They're not a large organization nor well known, and they do wonderful work. I will mention my small contribution - www.SunShowerLearning.com - where I focus on creating online courses with experts like Dr. Derald Wing Sue who is a leading researcher into microaggressions. Well, if you find a good source for what you're looking for, please share.
I am thoroughly exhausted and disgusted with the fourth estate for failing to live up to its original purpose. Not only is it failing us now but it took its eyes off the ball allowing oligarchs and Christian Nationalists free rein to align and conspire in secret for decades. We shouldn't be surprised when all the major newspapers and cable companies are now owned by toxic billionaires. I recently had to back off twitter and went an entire month without so much as a click so I could be around Republican family members during the holidays. I didn't want to be freshly reminded how behind that smile and veneer of good cheer, how truly awful they are. I'm not out for the fight, but I am taking stock of how I can be most useful this year to get out the vote, while not risking my job. I didn't have that concern when I worked for an organization in 2020 to register voters and knock on doors to get Warnock and Ossoff elected. As for DeSantis's covid comment, I read a response to your tweet about that on twitter. This woman replied that a vaccine is no longer required to avoid getting covid and that people are rarely if ever dying anymore. Even if that were true, Republicans aren't just attacking covid vaccines but all vaccines because they're basically all libertarians now.
I don’t think the problem is outrage fatigue as much as the stress of pretending not to notice what’s happening. The NYT writes one story about open fascism and thinks they’re done, while they essentially led with the president of Harvard for about three weeks. Our biggest media outlets never let the fact that Republicans lie constantly influence their judgment on whether Republicans might be lying to them again.
In my last newsroom job, I was the one who got fatigued, because I was constantly imploring my bosses to act as if the thing they knew was happening (and would agree with me on after work) was in fact happening. THAT was exhausting. Their approach--repeat what Republicans say, maybe repeat what the Democrats are saying in response, put in the occasional “without evidence,” call it a day--it didn’t seem to be wearing on them at all.
As I've said elsewhere, any victory of trump in a primary--which will be all of them--should be met with the headline "trump wins X primary despite overt desire to be dictator." Followed by subhead: "The real issue is why people want that. "
And ask the damn question in the exit polls and report on THAT.
“[Dean] listed states he would win to a raucous audience before screaming "Yeah!" Within four days, it was broadcast 633 times on national news networks and cable channels.”
Imagine if Trump calling people “vermin” was broadcast half that much.
The OligarchMassMedia better get on the Democracy Bandwagon or they might lose all their outraged customers
There is something about the psychology of religious cults (or perhaps the psychology and sociology behind the rise of Nazism in the 1930s in the US and Europe) that might help explain the present moment we are in. We have all seen how otherwise reasonable, smart people will believe that some guy who has little more than boundless audacity is the second coming of Christ or is otherwise worthy of our suspending common sense and healthy skepticism to bellieve whatever comes out of his mouth. Once a person is bought into a messiah figure, it is extraordinarily hard for facts and reason to dislodge that person from their belief. If anything, the conduits of facts and reason become an enemy to be resisted. Sometimes the only thing that shakes a person or group of people from their hold on cultism is some deep and persistent dissonance between their belief system and their lived reality. It is absolutely true that the media must prioritize being consistently diligent in chronicling the threats to democracy and our way of life being promulgated by Donald Trump and his followers. But breaking the hold of the cult will take so much more. The proof is the fact that, like "long COVID," a significant segment of America never fully got over its 1930s adoration of Nazism but its symptoms persist in the Donald Trump/MAGA movement.
There is so much of the lies and disinformation that is built on skewed science -- especially the eugenics notion that there are distinct races with distinct genes that make some "better" than others. It's the basis of White Supremacism and echoes much of the Dominionist notion that the white man's religion was what the founders used to write the Constitution.
When the end goal of a “news” outlet is profit and and the owner/corporation is opposed to anything that stands in the way of profit and/or it’s messaging then it must follow that the vehicle becomes a non independent corporate tool to promote said corporate messaging...Fox News is obvious but MSNBC, CNN, NYT, WaPo are all disposing of investigative and truthful journalism and replacing it with opinionism and the opinions are those of management. Nobody wants to lose their job so they all go along with it.